1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wireless communications and more particularly to transmitting digital faxes over a wireless communication link.
2. Description of Related Art
Under current wireless communication systems, a person wishing to transmit a facsimile often originates a call to the recipient just prior to transmitting the fax. Thereafter, the person must release (terminate) the voice call and must redial the same number as the voice call through the digital fax device (eg., personal computer with a digital fax board or a digital fax machine) to set up a line to transmit the facsimile from a system capable of transmitting information in a digital form. The method in the current art is inefficient in terms of resources and user time. Additionally, if a wireless communication medium is being used, then the user may pay for line charges which are not actually used as a result of these inefficiencies. More particularly, because of billing procedures which typically round up all charges to next minute, any user which needs to talk to a recipient prior to sending a fax will always pay for an additional amount of rounding in billing procedures because of the fact that two calls had to be placed to deliver one fax. Additionally, the mere time involved from such inefficiency causes users to be less efficient with our time and therefore increase the cost of labor unnecessarily. While any one such event may not cost a significant amount in terms of inefficiencies, the accumulative totals for such inefficiencies are noteworthy. Accordingly, there is a need for a system and method which allows a user to transmit a digital fax over a line which was initially established for a voice call.